Biopolitical Times Says More Openness Needed at CIRM

The Biopolitical Times says the public has a right to attend the meetings of advisory groups to the $3 billion California stem cell agency.

On June 23, the online publication of the Center for Genetics and Society of Berkeley, Ca., commented on our report about how CIRM barred two academics from one of its meetings. We said that the action certainly violated the spirit of a relatively new provision of state Constitution that gave the public a broadly construed right to access to government activities, and likely violated the letter of the law as well.

Jesse Reynolds, project director on biotechnology accountability at the center, agreed. He wrote that “CIRM is a public agency, and the public has a right to attend such influential deliberations.”

One of our readers, Justine Durrell, asked this week how CIRM could begin to address its problems with openness. One of the first things it could do is to be sure that such meetings are open to the public and be sure that interested parties are notified in a timely fashion in advance of the meetings.